FRIDAY MORNING RAMBLE: St Patrick’s Week edition

Q: Why do the Irish wear green on St Patrick's Day?
A: So that later we can CGI ourselves out of the embarrassing videos.
- Iowahawk

Maybe that could work for the Greens, who “like to think they’re friends of the earth but aren’t so keen on all its earthlings.”
Enemy of affordability – HOME PADDOCK

And Labour donors of an evening are also partial  to a wee portion of xenophobia.
Selwyn Pellett blaming the Chinese – KIWIBLOG

Mind you, so are  the New Zealand Government. “New Zealand is actually quite strict when it comes to permitting foreign investment. We are actually one of the more restrictive countries in the OECD.”
Foreign Investment – BRENNAN McDONALD

And in case you haven’t noticed..
The Music Just Ended: "Wealthy" Chinese Are Liquidating Offshore Luxury Homes In Scramble For Cash – ZERO HEDGE

The big government folks won't like this one.
Why Small Government Reduces Income Inequality (And big government increases it) – AGAINST CRONY CAPITALISM

Mind you, cronyism is only rife in China. Doesn’t happen here.
Inside the Shrine – HARD NEWS

Debt, There Is A Limit: The Japanese Government Edition. An edition consisting of more debt than they can handle…

So there was this study, right, about … oh, I forget.
Common Myth About Marijuana Busted in Scientific Study – CAPITALISM IS FREEDOM

See, men in late-night bars know this stuff.
Women want as much sex as men – STUFF

Beer, people, a good time. Give a man a clipboard, and he can even kill that.
Popular Beer Festival Damaged by Excess Compliance & Over-Regulation – Neil Miller, BEER & BREWER

“Florentine patrons didn't commission David statues because he had a hot body. But advertisers see only a nude.”
Michelangelo's David Has a Right to Bear Arms – Virginia Postrel, BLOOMBERG VIEW

Since these smears are still circulating…
Lying about Ayn Rand and Social Security – CLASSICALLY LIBERAL
Smearing Ayn: Rand, Nietzsche and the Purposeless Monster – CLASSICALLY LIBERAL

“The best solution to a great many insoluble pains and problems is a bath.”
The consolations of a bath – Alain de Boitton, PHILOSOPHER’S MAIL

“Poverty is driving nuclear family break-up? I say it's vice versa.”
This isn't a chicken or egg scenario – LINDSAY MITCHELL

I love the sort of debates they still have in The Times. Where else can you get publicly impassioned about the definite article?

Idiocy comes in many forms.
Not just physics, Indigenous Australian physics – Natalie Solent, SAMIZDATA

No, it’s not just meta-data.
NSA surveillance program reaches ‘into the past’ to retrieve, replay phone calls – WASHINGTON POST

“It is nine years since James Bartholomew published The Welfare State We're In. It has recently been re-published and  includes an introduction looking at what has changed in the interim. You can read it here. ‘The good news keeps coming and the bad news gets worse. Much has changed and nearly everything stays the same.’”
Update on Britain's "welfare state" – LINDSAY MITCHELL

“Germany's €100 billion in subsidies for solar (providing 0.7% of energy) will delay global warming 37 hours by 2100.”
Germany’s energy policy is expensive, harmful and short-sighted – Bjorn Lomborg, F.T.

“Noam Chomsky has been venerated by the left for years as their most important ideologue, but in the book Diary of an Anti-Chomskyite, author Benjamin Kerstein takes on the leftist powerhouse's ‘political evil.’”
Noam Chomsky: The Last Totalitarian – Michael Totten, WORLD AFFAIRS

Interesting.
Today's #Dailychart reveals the countries that buy and sell the most weapons – THE ECONOMIST

Charles Bukowski would have recognised these. Entrepreneurs wouldn’t.
The Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Dealing With Excuses – ALTUCHER CONFIDENTIAL

Writing a novel? Simple.

Keynes v Hayek, Round Ten: In which wins this round hands down, and our hero fails the red line test.
Keynes & Hayek: Prophets for today – ECONOMIST

“Because at some point in the not so distant past, someone said ‘hey maybe there’s a better way to run busses, trains and the taxi system’. And those people then found a way to make it happen.”
The Technology That Makes Public Transport a Dream to Use… – Sam Volkering, MONEY MORNING

An architect who rents, is happy to rent, and has no desire to buy or build his own. 
Why I Rent and Would Never Buy – Ben Pentreath, F.T.

“If Krugman/Keynes were advising the Pharaoh during
Joseph's time, he'd have advised against saving grain.”
- Johnson Nderi

“Reading the daily news, you would be hard-pressed to find mention that there is still an employment crisis unfolding in many industrialised countries… The only problem is, nobody seems to care much anymore… The current economic malaise is reminiscent of what the Great Depression was like.”
The Failure of Keynesianism – James Miller, MISES CANADA

“’We never should have painted ourselves so deep in this QE corner in the first place,’ chides David Stockman, ‘because the whole predicate [of Fed policy] is false.’”
"The Cacophony Of Fed Confusion," David Stockman Warns Will Lead To "Economic Calamity" – ZERO HEDGE

“Film critics review movies as if they were stories that merely happen to be told with a camera. What happened to analysing films as films?”
Film as film – PROSPECT MAGAZINE

And as for music!
Music Criticism Has Degenerated Into Lifestyle Reporting – DAILY BEAST

At least the economics of award-winning TV and movies is getting better. Or maybe it’s the analysis…

Mind you, is that as important as naked skateboarding?

Or an almost listenable Lou Reed and Brian Eno mashup?

This has been nagging at me for weeks. (Of course it starts quietly. What do you expect, it’s a sunrise.)

Didn’t know it’ d gone.

[Hat tips Suzuki Samurai, Sandrine L., Libertarian Alliance, David Slack, Peter Namtvedt, ian leslie, The Economist, Jesselyn Radack, James Stevens Valliant]

Thanks for reading,
Have a great weekend!
PC

PS: Westboro Baptist bigot Fred Phelps died this week:

“Even Mr. Alighieri could not tell you what
circle Fast Freddy Phelps dwells in today.”
- Dennis Miller